


Flowers In The Ashes

by stelleappese



Series: Used To Being The Cat [2]
Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Gen, cursing, dinosaurs eating other dinosaurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 02:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4769756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelleappese/pseuds/stelleappese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hoskins has to keep an eye on doc Wu as he catalogues and studies the specimens on Isla Nublar in 1994.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers In The Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Flowers In The Ashes' from [this](http://fc-smorgasbord.livejournal.com/989.html) table.

The rain starts falling when they’re almost done setting camp. It comes down hard and unrelenting, accompanied by loud, cracking thunder, it turns the ground around them into mud.  
Hoskins walks into Kruppik’s tent completely soaked just as the little Chinese guy is telling the boss that it’s normal, this kind of rain comes and goes quickly, and they should be ready to start in the morning.  
“Hoskins, you’re on guard duty”, says Kruppik, distractedly.  
“Yes, sir”, says Hoskins, not at all enthusiastic at the thought of spending the night perched on a tree under the falling rain.  
“Get Dr. Wu to his tent first, would you?”, Kruppik adds. The little guy gives Hoskins a brief look, then walks out in the rain on his own. Hoskins sighs and scrambles out behind him.

It doesn’t seem to him like Dr. Wu needs any babysitting, but he walks into his tent all the same, gives its contents a brief look, and walks out again. Thunder breaks right above them just as he steps foot out of the tent, and Hoskins flinches and looks instinctively up at the sky. Dr. Wu walks out as well, standing under the canopy, arms crossed, looking at the lightning silhouetted against the horizon.  
As soon as the rumbling of the thunder dies down, a loud, blood-curdling, roaring call echoes in the night. Hoskins grabs his weapon, ready to fire. Dr. Wu chuckles, and Hoskins feels his face grow hot.  
“What the _fuck_  was that?”, he asks, pissed off at himself for letting his fear show. Dr. Wu gives him an amused look.  
“That’s my T-Rex”, he says, softly, “She likes to howl at storms, like wolves do.”  
The little guy, Hoskins decides, is completely nuts.

*

Once the rain stops, around mid-morning, Hoskins has to admit the sight is definitely a majestic one.  
Isla Nublar is shining under the sun that just came out from behind the clouds, washed clean and looking brand new. Down in the valley, packs of enormous creatures roam lazily, smaller ones flock like one single being towards the river, others bask in the sunlight.  
It takes Hoskins’ brain a while to start processing he’s looking at real, living creatures, and not something out of a movie. They call to each other, some honking, others singing melodiously, and Hoskins feels like a space explorer just landed on an unknown planet.  
He looks at the creatures from up close when they sedate the first bunch of them, rests a hand on top of the head of a sleeping Stegosaurus as Dr. Wu calmly takes samples and implants a microchip under its skin. He grins as he runs his fingers across the tough, scarred skin, feeling like a little kid.

He might be nuts, the doc, but he’s not a wimp. He sits right next to Kruppik when they drive across the island, relegating an awed but vaguely grumpy Hoskins to the backseat. He’s the first to approach the still half-awake dinosaurs, strolling towards them without a trace of hesitation. It seems he’s not intimidated at all by how _impossible_  those creatures are.  
Hoskins wonders, with actual curiosity and no trace of sarcasm, whether Dr. Wu would feel the same ease with the big, meat-eating dinos too, like the one that had been screaming into the night…

“So, what are you doing exactly?”, asks Hoskins. Kruppik gives him a look, but doesn’t say anything. Kruppik, Hoskins knows very well, does not approve of pointless talk.  
“Cataloguing specimens”, says the doc, “And trying to figure something out.”  
“And what’s that?”, asks Hoskins, curiously.  
“Hoskins”, says Kruppik; a low and light warning. Hoskins raises both his hands in surrender. Dr. Wu grins as he scribbles in his notebook.

*

They’re getting ready to approach and sedate a little gang of duck-billed dinosaurs, Dr. Wu told Hoskins they’re called Maiasaura, when the ground starts shaking.  
“Are they stampeding?”, asks Hoskins, looking around, getting ready to get the fuck out of there if the situation calls for it.  
“No”, says Dr. Wu, eyes suddenly wide, “She’s coming.”

The dinosaur, a _massive_ thing with a huge, square head, and razor-sharp teeth, barges out of the jungle with a speed that surprises Hoskins. Such a big fucking monster shouldn’t be so fast, it’s just not _fair_. It charges. The duck-billed dinosaurs scatter, their alarmed honking calls filling the air. The big one, the T-Rex, Hoskins guesses, lunges forwards and grabs one of them with incredible ease; it shakes its head from side to side until the Maiasaura stops whining and struggling and goes still, then lets the carcass fall on the ground, puts a foot on it, and roars. Blood soaks the grass as the T-Rex starts eating.

Every fiber of Hoskins’ being tells him to kick Kruppik out of the driver seat and drive back to camp as fast as he can, fuck, maybe even drive straight into the damned sea, anything would be safer than here. At the same time, he can’t stop looking at the T-Rex as it feeds. Shivers run down his spine.  
Dr. Wu does look completely calm. He hops out of the car, takes a few steps forward. Hoskins curses under his breath and follows him.  
“She won’t pay attention to us”, Dr. Wu says, lightly, “Not when she’s eating, and not if we keep our distance. She _does_  know we’re here. She’s got a remarkable sense of smell.”  
“Great, I feel so much better, now”, whispers Hoskins, still too scared to actually be properly sarcastic. Dr. Wu chuckles.  
He doesn’t like this, Hoskins, doesn’t like that this tiny guy can be so calm in front of that titanic monster, when Hoskins feels shaken to the core. He’s a marine, for fuck’s sake, Dr. Wu is just a _scientist_.  
“We’ll need to sedate her as well, obviously. She seems healthy, but she needs a microchip just like the rest.”  
“You want to get close to that thing?”, asks Hoskins, surprised.  
“Sure, why not?”, asks Dr. Wu, with a shrug, “She’ll be sedated, no reason to be scared. Plus, she’s always been my favorite”, he says, his eyes sparkling as he observes the T-Rex rip chunks of flesh from the Maiasaura.  
“You _are_  nuts”, comments Hoskins, but he sounds disgustingly impressed as he says it.  
“Perhaps”, smiles Dr. Wu.

*

“Dude, don’t leave the trail!”, complains Hoskins, running after Dr. Wu as he walks deeper into the jungle. He can hear Kruppik snapping at somebody, but nobody follows. He supposes at least Kruppik respects him enough to think he’ll be able to take care of a tiny nerd. Awesome.  
“Where are you going?”  
Dr. Wu doesn’t answer. Instead, he crouches down and tilts his head. He points at Hoskins’ feet. Hoskins looks down to see rows and rows of tiny little bird-like paw-prints. When he looks back up, Dr. Wu is holding what looks like an egg shell in his hands, running his fingers inside it.  
“Othnielia, probably”, Dr. Wu says, lost in thought. There’s a little pause, then he laughs and shakes his head: “Grant _was_  right”, he says.  
“About what?”, asks Hoskins. He really doesn’t like being kept out of the loop.

“When I made these animals, I didn’t want them to breed”, the doctor explains, “It was a matter of security, obviously. They had to be manageable, they had to depend on us to survive. They weren’t supposed to be capable of surviving in the wild. So I made sure, among other things, that they were all female.”  
“Right, of course you did”, mutters Hoskins, who has absolutely no idea how the fuck someone would do something like that.  
“The dinosaur DNA we had was fragmented, and I had to fill the gaps with _something_. I didn’t think the extra DNA would blend in so perfectly with the dinosaur one that the animals would develop the ability to change gender and reproduce, just like the Hyperolius Viridiflavus whose DNA I’d used to patch the original, fragmented strand together.”  
“Hyper-what?”, asks Hoskins.  
“It’s a kind of frog.”  
“Oh”, murmurs Hoskins, then frowns at Dr. Wu, “Isn’t that, hm, kind of a big mistake to make? I mean, didn’t you check the Hyper-frog _before_  you stuffed its DNA into a dinosaur, to make sure nothing weird would happen?”

Dr. Wu stands up, still fidgeting with the egg shell. “I didn’t”, he admits, “It was the first time anybody tried something like this, I had no precedents to look up. But ‘a mistake’? No, not in the least”, he says.  
“Sounds like a mistake to me”, shrugs Hosking.  
Dr. Wu gives him an intense look. There’s a vague hint of irritation in his expression, which makes Hoskins nervous, but he doesn’t seem _mad_  or anything. The little guy obviously takes his work very seriously.  
“I was given five years to achieve something that humankind would have accomplished in fifty”, he says, “And I succeeded even before my five years were over. The fact these animals are breeding proves that I did my job properly. A breeding animal is a functioning animal. I’ve managed to recreate them with such precision they’re reproducing on their own. I don’t see a mistake in that, I see, ah…”, he pauses, hands Hoskins the egg shell and smiles at him, “Validation”, he says, then walks back to the path without waiting to see if Hoskins is following him.


End file.
